Hey guys,

For more than 1,5 years I am literally eating the same every single workday of a week. Currently I am bulking, around 14% body fat, 5 11’ inches and 166 lbs. I am counting my macros and my calorie intake as well.

Every single workday I eat the following:

Breakfast before workout: 50 grams (~0,11 pounds) of oatmeal with 1 banana, 2 cl of flaxseed oil.

The rest of the day consists

• 500 grams (~1,10 pounds) of lean turkey breasts
• 385 grams (~0,85 pounds) of white basmati rice
• 50 grams (~0,11 pounds) of walnuts
• paprika, tomatoes, cucumber

divided into 3 parts, one after workout, the other two for lunch and dinner.

As far as I know you have to eat a caloric surplus to build muscle (250-500 kcal above maintenance) with the right amounts of Protein, Carbs and Fats. For a normal guy like me, with 8 hours of work per day and an average salary, having no chefs who cook for me I cannot think of a better way to maximize the quality of my diet plan THAN sticking to the same foods every day. I am not sure if I should vary my meals on a daily basis, counting my macros and calorie intake with other foods every single day….?!

My questions would be the following:

1 Should I have to be this precise and strict? Or eating “just” healthy and variedly is enough? My aim is to look and feel great, to get bigger and muscular and progress on the long run.

2 Is it safe for my health? Does my body get all the vitamins and nutrients it needs with a one-sided diet plan? And if not, what if I take multivitamins with my diet plan, am I done?

3 How you guys do this whole process? I am really curious how other “normal” guys solve this problem.

Thanks and sorry for the long post.

Bence

@bencefabian12345 For your questions...

1. I kind of covered this in the video I released yesterday with Jake from MaSTAR. You don't HAVE to be super strict every single day if you're not competing or anything like that. But what you do want to know is that you are getting enough calories daily.

Have you added up your macro and calorie numbers from this typical day of eating? The food choices and portions sounds pretty good.. and I guess the results you are seeing will tell you if it's working or not, but it would be good to get an idea of what it all adds up to. If you can find a way to incorporate other foods into your diet and still move towards your goals without being super strict and weighing everything etc., then you totally can. And if it's easier to just stick to the same foods daily, you can do that too.

2. Typically, no matter how good your diet plan is, you'll miss maybe one or two micronutrients. That's why it's handy to use a multi-vitamin supplement daily as well, just to cover your bases if you want to. It's not absolutely essential though.

3. I think there's no perfect way to solve it. Everyone is different. You just have to find what works for you - what foods you enjoy, and what fits with your schedule and your budget. Whether you want more variety in your diet or not is up to you at the end of the day. It's beneficial to vary it a little bit - personally I like to stick to mostly the same stuff during the week, and then kind of relax more on the weekends.

Hope that helps!

I agree with Scott. I do take things a bit more to the extreme than the average person but nutrition is very important to me and there are no exceptions:

1) I diligently track my macros and weigh my food everyday.

2) I always buy and cook my own food and avoid restaurants and fast food. When I do eat out, it is usually a very small circle of restaurants that have food I can eat like Japanese or Vietnamese restaurants.

3) I don't need nor see any reason for "cheat days". I enjoy all the food I eat and do not have cravings as I make sure my nutrition plan has all the nutrients I need thus preventing cravings.

4) The more wholesome and varied your nutrition plan, the higher the chance you are getting all your micronutrients. I do not use vitamin/mineral supplements as I don't need them due to my diet and I monitor key vitamins like Vitamin D when I have my annual health screen. As Scott said, most people don't get all they need so a multivitamin/mineral is a good "safety net".

I wouldn't use myself as an example of the "average" or "normal" guy but that is because for me and at my age I do not believe in any compromises in my nutrition to maximize my gains, keep myself lean, and maintain optimal health.

John

@Caseylaski yeah man that makes sense for sure, and while you won't be shredded at 15.7%, that's a good starting point for lean gaining. Try not to go above 18-20% bodyfat from here, just add that quality mass slowly 😁 

You're welcome Casey! Yeah it's always a good idea to have a plan and program in place rather than just guessing. Which program are you going to be using?

Awesome! I tried to set it up so you could attack everything with 100% 💪 ðŸ˜ 

Hey guys,

Another question came to my mind:

Does one-sided eating work like muscle adaptation? My idea is: As our body adapts to workout routines it can adapt to certain foods as well, thats why we need to change our diet as requently as we change our programs. Does this idea has any sense? Or no matter what we eat, our body only recognise it as macro nutrients?

Thanks,

Bence

The body really doesn't care where it gets its macro and micronutrients from. It is more concerned that they are quality and fit the needs of the body systems. This is why I am a huge proponent of always eating healthy, nutritously dense foods.

The advantage of changing the foods you eat more frequently is it provides more variety in your diet and it ensures you are getting all the micronutrients you need in their proper proportions.

John

It's an interesting question but for the most part, it doesn't matter. What I like to do is basically eat the same things throughout the week (Monday-Friday), then relax a bit more and get more variety on the weekends. I feel like this is a good way to still get the variety but keep your diet simple enough that you don't have to change a lot of things, a lot of the time.

thanks guys, you are the best, really f@cking good advises there.

Glad we could help you out @bencefabian12345!!